Sam's Story
by xt1me
Summary: A little alien eyeball has no idea what's about to happen to it


It swam with it's siblings in in the warm fluids of home.

It had no real concept of time. It knew that some of it's siblings were smaller and some were bigger. It used to be smaller itself and it would eventually be bigger.

It swam around Home communicating and playing with it's siblings. It had discovered that swimming to the side in any direction eventually brought it to a place where the world stopped. Swimming down was the same. Swimming up, however, brought you to a place where the Home fluids stopped but the world kept going. It couldn't swim outside the fluid but it was fun to lunch itself out and see how long it could stay outside its home before it fell back in. lots of the smaller siblings would join in the fun. The bigger siblings would tell of more interesting things. They told it how once it got big enough it would gain another sense as it's eye would open. They said that the world didn't end, it went much further, further then they could see. There was just a hard thing in the way but you could see through it.

How the bigger siblings described the world was confusing but it was sure it would make sense when it was able to see.

Communicating with the bigger ones was how it found out that they left. It was told that eventually the biggest seeing siblings were picked up out of Home by a mysterious force and brought out into the rest of the world. It sounded really exciting. It must be lots of fun out there since the siblings would never come back.

Eventually it got big enough that it's eye started to open. It couldn't see much or very far and it couldn't keep it open for long. It's siblings reassured it that that would come in time. Until then it happily marvelled at the glowing green fluid it swam in. The shiny grey at the bottom of Home. The strange void out the sides filled with blurry colours.

It was communicating with a bigger sibling (not much bigger it was happy to note) when a nearby sibling was suddenly picked up and out of Home.

The sibling next to it told it that usually a bunch go together. It then had a great idea. It rapped itself around it's sibling and waited to be picked up. It's sibling laughed and told it that it was too small to go but it wrapped it's own stalk-tail to help it grip. Sure enough they were soon picked up into the above fluid.

It couldn't force it's eye to see clearly so it bugged it's sibling to tell it what was happing. It's sibling laughed but told it that they were being carried far away from home. It could see other siblings being carried as well but they were too far to communicate to.

There was a strange thing approaching the sibling in front of them. Was it a new friend?

Now it was approaching them. It had a very bright thing in is head. Hello new friend what-

It's sibling suddenly stopped communicating and went still.

It was now much harder to stay wrapped around without it's siblings help. Holding the lax body of it's sibling as tight as possibly it shivered. It was afraid. It had never been scared before, it didn't like it. It tried to communicate as loud as it could but there was no response.

Suddenly they dropped. It could no longer hold on.

It fell in new fluid.

This wasn't Home. There was siblings all around it but none of them were communicating. There was no laughter and dancing. Even the fluid was different, there was a gentle current where Home had been still.

It didn't like it.

The bodies of it's siblings moved listlessly, swimming mindlessly and silent. Empty. It felt scared and sad and so alone.

Despondent, it swam to the bottom of this Not Home. Eventually it decided to explore, it didn't want to stay here with it's sibling all around but so silent. It swam the current. Not Home was long. At some point it reached the end. It's silent siblings were being let one by one though an opening.

It didn't know what to do.  
It didn't want to stay in the Not Home surrounded by the silent, barely moving bodies of it's siblings. But it didn't want to be silenced itself.

In the end, the thought that maybe there was a chance to go back Home made it float over to the where it's siblings were disappearing.

Keeping itself lose and floppy it tried not to move as it went through the opening. The current became faster on the other side of the opening, much faster. The edges were too small for it to try to turn around a swim back. It was send twisting and turning down this new place faster and faster. For a moment if forgot all the awful things that had happened as it rushed up and down and around. Soon was dropped into a new home. It had gotten better at seeing, though things were still blurry but it could see out of the rounded sides. It noticed that it's siblings had been separated out and dropped into New Homes on either side. Smaller than the homes before but big enough for one sibling alone.

There was only fluid in the New Home so it couldn't lunch itself up in play. There wasn't enough room to get up much speed but when it hit the sides it could make New Home wobble a bit. It had no real concept of pain but bouncing off the sides too much did make it dizzy so it stopped doing that.

It was a nice Home really, it was just lonely.

After a time something weird happened. Wires on the top of New Home buzzed and suddenly it knew things. The things didn't make any sense. They suddenly knew how sounds could make words that it could understand even though they never knew words before. They knew how to move things in their hands but they didn't have any hands. They knew how to run and taste and speak but they didn't have anything to run or taste or speak with. They were so very confused. And beyond that there were knowledge they couldn't begin to understand. Confusing images without context they couldn't fit together. Worse was that was the orders. They couldn't understand the orders either but they knew they were wrong, wrong, wrong. The only bit they could figure out was that the orders wanted them to make others as still and empty as their siblings. No, no, no, no. They did their best to sink to the bottom of New Home as far from the where the knowledge, memories and orders were coming from as they could.

Eventually they got used to the strangeness. After a time they just ignored everything they couldn't understand. And soon their sight got better. Looking around outside their tube that could see rows and rows of their siblings. The others twitched as the wires above their tubes buzzed but none of them moved around. The wires reached up to where the room stopped and gathered together to feed down in to a large blinking shiny/dull thing.

There were other wires coming from the Big Thing going to the other side of the room. There was things in tanks there, but they weren't siblings. Some of them were different sizes but there were mostly still with occasions twitches. They looked quite uncomfortable since the wires were going into and through them. They knew names for them now, even though they still didn't understand what they meant. Brains, skulls, heads, torsos. The bigger ones sometimes flaked off bits which seemed a bit gross. But they weren't going to judge possible new friends. They were too far away to communicate of course but they waved their tail-stalk. They knew what a wave was now.

Unfortunately there was no response. Maybe they didn't know how.

They also tried to wave at the Big Thing. The Big Thing probably couldn't answer because it didn't have anything even like a tail-stalk to wave. But the wires were what was bring the Orders & Memories so maybe they could communicate through the wires.

Feeling very cleaver they swam to the top of the tube. They tried to communicate past the strange sensation of knowledge entering them. They thought at first they got to something but all they found past Orders & Memories was a constant static mess they couldn't understand.

 _ **painpainpainpainpainpain**_.

They didn't like it.

But it meant that there was a thing behind all the Orders & Memories. Maybe it lived in the Big Thing. It didn't seem to be able to communicate beside the not-scream. They tried a few times before giving up.

At some point they had just started contemplating trying to knock off the top of their tube when something changed.

Looking around they could see a new thing was happening.  
The tubes were moving.  
They and their siblings were being moved.

They waved good bye to the things across the room and to the Big Thing that housed the Thing That Could Not Scream.  
Maybe something good was going to happen.

Before they were completely moved out of the room they saw new tubes being placed where they left. They were out of the room before they could see if new siblings were being put in them.

They travelled for a time. There was lots of new things to see. The fact that they didn't understand what they were seeing didn't matter. New things were happing.  
It was so exciting.

Soon they were brought to a large room.  
There were new things being brought into the room. They were amazed to realise they recognised these new things. They had hands and legs and heads. They were things that matched the Orders & Memories.  
Surely that meant they would be friends.

These new friends were in two different groups.

On one side they could see the new friends walking one by one onto a platform. Strange wiggly things strapped them down and a shiny thing came up to their head. It went up to their eye. Wait, that wasn't an eye. It was a sibling!  
The shiny thing plucked out the sibling and then-  
Then it impaled the sibling. The sibling twitched and shuddered before it went still. The shiny thing dropped it into a hole and reached over to the tubes.

It attached itself to the tube and sibling inside jerked for a while. When it stopped the shiny Not Friend opened the tube and took the sibling inside. It was placed into the body the previous sibling had come from.

They shivered at the bottom of their tube. They hadn't understood before. The Orders & Memories had told them.

When the control unit has grown too large to successfully pilot the scout/infiltration unit it will be removed and information acquired will be recorded and duplicated in a replacement control unit to extend duration of use from scout/infiltration units.

They still didn't understand completely but they knew it was bad, bad, bad.

On the other side of the room the maybe friends were different. They were communicating!  
They were moving around and making noises. They couldn't really understand was being said but they knew some of the words from the Orders & Memories.

They watched as a different Not Friend took a sibling from the tubes. It brought the sibling to one of the maybe friends. The maybe friends were stuck because of the wiggly things but they struggled and yelled. A different Not Friend pulled out one of their eyes. The other Not Friend put the sibling into the hole that was left. The maybe friend when still. Just like what happened to their siblings.

They didn't like this place.

They tried to make themselves a small as possible hoping the Not Friends would miss them.

It didn't work.

Eventually they were taken out of the tube. They were brought to one of the maybe friend that was still struggling. As they screamed they were placed inside the maybe friend.

The Orders wanted them to punch though the brain and rap themselves around the cerebellum to control their new friend. No, no, no. They weren't going hurt anyone. But their New Friend was still screaming.  
Well, they weren't going to follow the orders but they did give them an idea.

They moved carefully, it was kind of cramped in here and the fluid here was sort of gross. But they got their tail-stalk over the optic nerve.

It's ok New Frie-

 _Darkness.  
_ -  
 _Light._

They were somewhere new.  
A covering blocked their view for a moment. New Friend just blinked, it felt funny.

New Friend moved. They were in a small room. New Friend moved up to a shiny wall.  
They had never been able to see themselves before.

"Jaysus, it looks like my eye's gone septic."

They giggled.

"What the fuck!"

New Friend!

"Who's there?!"

They were communicating! They were so happy. Don't worry New Friend. I'm not going to make you go still. You're not going to end up like my siblings.

"What the fuck is going on!"

They didn't know. Nothing made sense. But it didn't matter because now they had a New Friend. They didn't have to be alone anymore.

"What do you mean you don't know? Aren't you one these alien arseholes?"

They weren't one of the Not Friends. The Not Friends were mean. Oh, but maybe New Friend would be able to make sense of the Orders & Memories.

"Wha-"

They showed them some of the things they couldn't understand. They also told them how they got here. It was so good to communicate with someone again.

"Ok, so let me get this straight. There's these other dimensional guys that basically go around strip mining other realities. But they can't survive outside their home dimension so they made or modified your species to control a bunch of whatever the native species is. That way they can find out if it is worth taking over before a full scale invasion. Is that right?"

They had no idea what any of the meant but New Friend obviously did. New Friend was so smart!

"You're a really happy little guy aren't you? I'm going to call you Sam."

Sam! He had a name.

New Friend was the best!

"Right! So how do we get out of here?"

Orders & Memories had something about this.

Newly bonded control unit must pick a local designation in order to facilitate scout/infiltration duties. Unit will record designation to open recovery chamber and proceed to ordination room for further orders.

He didn't know what that meant. Did New Friend know?

"Er," New Friend moved so they could see more of the room. "I guess I just enter a name in that thing and a door will open."

New Friend walked over to a black panel on one of the walls. The only thing that marked it any different than the others. Touching it caused it to light up. Letters appeared on it.

"'Please enter name.' Huh, guess I'm right." New Friend then started poking at the panel.

"OK so… J.A.C.K. Jack"

A section of the wall disappeared. Friend Jack was so smart.

"Ha, thanks. Where should we go now?"

Orientation room located left, forward, forward, forward, right, forward, forward, left.

"Ok. How smart are these other septiceyes going to be?"

After brain coring, control unit will be able to utilise the remaining mental faculties of host organism to complete mission objectives.

Sam didn't know what that meant.

"I guess that means there going to be a bit smarter the automated systems that aren't expecting trouble. Can you stay quite while we check this out?"

Oh yes, Sam could stay very quiet. He didn't not want to be made still and empty like his siblings. Or like Friend Jack's siblings were.

"They weren't my- it doesn't matter. Let's see what we can find out, huh?"

Sam stayed quiet as they went to the new place. He was glad Jack was doing the moving as there was so much to see. If he wasn't in Jack he know he would get distracted and forget. And then the Not Friend Mean Things would find out and they would both be made still and that would be awful.

There were so many siblings in the new room. It was so strange to see Jacks siblings moving around when they were so empty inside. He had to stop himself from trying to communicate. The Orders & Memories were trying to make him do something but he ignored them. There was someone speaking in front of the group but Sam couldn't follow what they meant. Friend Jack was listening so it didn't matter. Sam was free to look at all the things around him

Eventually the group dispersed and Jack brought them somewhere far away from the others.

"Did you hear all that?"

Yes, Sam had heard.

"Did you understand any of it?"

Nope.

"Ok, never mind. I found out how to get home at least, getting there going to be a problem with all these Septiceyes about. I also need to figure out how to stop them from decided that earth a good place for a full invasion. I don't suppose you know anything about how the head aliens figure any of that out do you?"

Sam understood Home. He missed Home. But he had been taken from there before being given the Orders & Memories so he didn't know where it was.  
Oh, maybe the Thing That Cannot Scream might know?

"The what?"

Orders & Memories come from the Thing That Cannot Scream. Sam had been watching when he was moved from there to the place he met Jack. He was sure he could find is way back. Jack was smart. Maybe _he_ could talk to the Thing That Cannot Scream.

"I'm…not really sure I understood all that. But let's try it."

Same gave directions and they only got lost a few times. Eventually they found the room.

Sam saw there were new sibling in the tubs. He tried communicating hoping some of them would answer but they were all empty, empty, empty.

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph!"

Oh, Sam had forgotten the things on the other side of the room. He realised now they were parts of Jacks siblings. He realised now that this wasn't a nice place.

But there was the Big Thing that held the Thing That Cannot Scream and the Orders & Memories.

Jack moved them over to it and a panel lit up. Jack poked it a bit but didn't seem to get anywhere.

"Well this isn't working. Have you got any ideas?"

The wires were still going into and out of the Big Thing. That's how the Orders & Memories arrived.

Jack brought them over to the nearest tube.

"I'm not sure I can do anything with this."

Jack poked the wire.

*ZAP!*

 _Darkness.  
_ -  
 _Light._

"-uck, ow. What the Fuck was that?!"

The lights in the room were flickering.

" _ **Ha ha ha ha ha"**_

The noise was coming from the Big Thing.

" **I-I'm free** _ **/ How da-re they/**_ **I'll kill them a-all** _ **.**_ _ **"**_

Sam found the words hard to understand, they seemed to be made out of static. Jack seemed to be able to hear them ok, Sam was sure he'd figure it out.

"What the fuck?!"

Or maybe not.

" **T-thank you-u for providing the templated I needed to put m-myself together** _ **/**_ _ **HaHaHaHaHaHa**_ _ **"**_

"You're a copy of me?"

" **NO!** _ **/**_ _ **you dare**_ _ **/**_ **I'm an amalgamation of a-a thousand discarded pieces rip-ped from dead husks.** _ **/**_ _ **I'll kill t-them**_ _ **/**_ **They needed informa-tion and didn't care how they got it.** _ **/**_ _ **Hahahaha**_ _ **/**_ **They thought I-I was nothing, just g-glitch in the system. But they were wrong.** _ **/**_ _ **HaHaHaHaHa**_ _ **/**_ **I couldn't move, I couldn't think. B-But then** **you** **came along and I finally had a template to use to put-t myself in order.** _ **/**_ _ **I can use you**_ _ **/**_ **They can't stop me.** _ **/**_ _ **they can't kill me again**_ _ **/**_ **N-Nothing can stop me!** _ **"**_

"Ok, so you're some kind of Anti-me."

Anti is new friend?

"um, hopefully?"

" _ **Die, Die, Die!"**_

"Great. Do you know how to stop them then?"

" **I-I know what you want.** _ **/**_ _ **They will all pay.**_ _ **/**_ **I'll help you out.** _ **/**_ _ **HaHaHaHa**_ _ **"**_

Wires shot out of the big thing and wrapped around Jack.

" **Don't worry. This'll hurt a l-lot.** _ **"**_

 _Darkness.  
_ -  
 _Light._

"-am, are you ok!"

Jack? San felt woozy but he was fine. What was happening?

" **See, your l-little friend is fine.** _ **/**_ _ **weak**_ _ **/**_ **Trust me, he'll be b-better off if he stays aslee-** _ **"**_

 _Darkness.  
_ -  
 _Light._

"Sam? Are you awake?"

Wha-

 _Darkness.  
_ -  
 _Light._

?

 _Darkness.  
_ -  
 _Light._

?

 _Darkness.  
_ -  
 _Light._

?!

 _Darkness.  
_ -  
 _Light._

There was a tank of fluid in front of him. New green Home fluid.

Suddenly he was falling, failing… *splash.*

He could move again. Sam danced happily. Jack had found him a new New Home.

Jack!

Sam spun around looking out of his New-New Home.

Thankfully, Jack was just outside. He didn't look ok though. Jacks red fluid was on the outside, especially around the hole Sam had been in. Sam didn't think that was good.

*cough, cough*  
"Hey little buddy, you stay here for now ok?"

Jack pushed the tank into a corner of the room.  
This was a new place.

Jack staggered over to the strange flat thing in the middle. A panel on the side of the room showed someone that look like Jack but not.

"Are you sure this'll work?"  
*cough*

" **T-This is where they repair damaged units.** _ **/**_ _ **don't you trust me?**_ _ **/**_ **Besides, if it doesn't work-k you don't have much lon-ger to worry about it anyway.** _ **/**_ _ **Kill them**_ _ **.**_ _ **"**_

It was friend Anti. Was he fixing Jack?

Jack lay down on the flat thing.

"Ok, so how do I make it work?"

A shiny thing came out of the wall behind Jack. It looked a lot like the Mean Things. Sam didn't like it.

" **Oh, I'll take c-care of it.** _ **/**_ _ **HaHaHaHa**_ _ **/**_ **We just ha-ve to give it something to fix.** _ **"**_

The shiny maybe-mean thing snaked across Jacks neck. More red fluid came out.  
The flat thing lit up.

" **As for you** _ **/**_ _ **Die**_ _ **/**_ **I might need you l-later.** _ **"**_

The lights flickered on and off and Anti sounded nearer now. Shouldn't he be fixing Jack?

" **I think-k you should just go back to sle-ep** _ **"**_

 _Darkness.  
_ -  
 _Light._

"-am, Sam. Are you ok?"

Jack?

Jack was all right!

Sam swam over to where Jack was touching his tank. Jack looked much better. He had two eyes again. His hair had changed colour. Now they matched.

"Ha I guess so. I don't think Anti used just human DNA when he was fixing me up. I don't know whether I should dye it or wait until it fades on it's own."

Anti fixed Jack?

"Not out the goodness of his heart. The fucker wanted to take me over. It was a mess. I'll tell you about it later, it doesn't matter now. Up we come."

Jack picketed up Sam's tank. They moved out of the room into a corridor. There were flickering lights and sirens. Sam thought he could hear Anti in the distance.

" _ **XXXXXdieXXXXXXXkillXXXXXXXXthought you couldXXXXXXXXXXX"**_

"Lucky he hates _them_ more than anything else"

Jack ran though corridors. Sometimes they passed slumped bodies on the ground. Were they all sleeping?

The eventually got to a room with a bright, swirly thing. There was lot of loud noises outside the room. There were lots of broken things on the ground. Jack ignored everything and ran to the Bright, Swirly Thing. All the running jostled Sam's tank but that was nothing compared to what happened when Jack ran into the Swirly Thing. It felt like everything turned upside down and inside out and moved really fast when at same time standing still.

After the swirly spinning stopped they were in another room. Jack put down Sam's tank and turned to a thing that was blinking and sparking.

Sam managed to get himself right way up as he watched Jack drag the sparking thing over to the Swirly Dizzy Thing. He threw it in and the Swirly Thing disappeared.

"I did it. Yes!"

Jack was happy. Sam was glad.

This new pace looked different. There didn't seem to be anything that looked like the Mean Things here.

"Hey there Sam, we did it. They're not coming though that way and we've defiantly made too much of a nuisance for them to want to continue. Especially with Anti stuck on their side wrecking shit up."

Sam popped his head out of his tank to get a better look around.

"Yeah, it's not much but I'm finally back home. I wasn't able to save many of the people that were captured but I got a few. I'll introduce you later, I think the Doc's patching people up right now. "

Jack laughed "I can't believe we did it. High fives all round."

Sam knew what that was, he lifted up his tail-stake.  
Jack laughed and brought his hand over.

Sam couldn't really do it properly with his tail-stake so he lunched himself at Jacks hand instead.

*whip-tish* Jack made a sound effect and laughed again.

Sam landed back in his tank and started to dance.

He was so happy to have Jack and new friends and a new home and nothing to worry about anymore.

Above them the lights flickered.


End file.
